Inspection Certificates
The Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service has added air and maritime shipments of precleared commodities from Korea, and maritime shipments from Chile, to the APHIS Core Message Set for Certificates of Foreign Inspection and/or Treatment (PPQ Form 203). In addition, APHIS has begun issuing port reports and vessel reports to more efficiently process large volumes of precleared maritime shipments from Argentina and Chile.
APHIS states that until such functionality is fully implemented for all countries it will continue to accept signed, paper, or electronic PPQ Form 203s and will allow importers of plant commodities to upload copies of signed PPQ Form 203s to the Automated Commercial Environment using the Document Image System.
Poultry Imports
APHIS has imposed the restrictions listed below on importations from the following areas based on determinations that highly-pathogenic avian influenza exists in domestic birds in these areas.
- all of New Zealand (effective Dec. 1)
- Saitama Prefecture, Japan (effective Nov. 25)
- Miyazaki Prefecture, Japan (effective Dec. 3)
- zones PCZ-242 in British Columbia and PCZ-243 in Alberta, Canada (effective Nov. 12)
- zone PCZ-245 in Alberta, Canada (effective Nov. 14)
- Imports of unprocessed avian products and byproducts and certain fresh poultry products originating from or transiting this area are prohibited.
- Imports of poultry, commercial birds, ratites, and hatching eggs originating from or transiting this area are prohibited.
- Processed avian products and byproducts originating from or transiting this area, imported as cargo, must be accompanied by an APHIS import permit and/or government certification confirming that the products were treated according to APHIS requirements.
- Importation as cargo of fresh, unprocessed shell/table eggs and other egg products, void of the shell (i.e., liquid eggs, dried egg whites), originating from or transiting this area is prohibited unless the products are consigned from the port of arrival directly to an APHIS-approved breaking and pasteurization facility. An import permit and/or certificate is not required for these shipments when consigned directly to an APHIS-approved establishment.
Separately, effective Nov. 22 APHIS has removed restrictions on imports of poultry, commercial birds, ratites, avian hatching eggs, unprocessed avian products and byproducts, and certain fresh poultry products originating from or transiting Chiba Prefecture in Japan.
New Zealand
APHIS is seeking comments no later than Jan. 24 on its proposal to deregulate light brown apple moth requirements for fruit imported from New Zealand by eliminating the requirement for such fruit to be accompanied by a phytosanitary certificate with an additional declaration stating that the fruit is free of LBAM.
Vietnam
The USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service reports that as of Dec. 16 Vietnam will lower its most-favored-nation tariff rate on soybean meal (HTSUS 2304.00.90) from two percent to one percent.
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